Brilliant Food Tips and Cooking Tricks: 5,000 Ingenious Kitchen Hints, Secrets, Shortcuts,a nd Solutions - Hardcover

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David Joachim is an editor, author, and spokesperson for Rodale cookbooks such as Prevention's The Healthy Cook and Vegetarian and More! He makes regular appearances on national television and radio, including the Discovery Channel, Food Network, QVC, and National Public Radio. He edited Steven Raichlen's Healthy Latin Cooking, which won a James Beard Award and was a finalist for a Julia Child Award.

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"Be A Faster, Smarter, Better Cook"

AND HAVE MORE FUN, TOO! Cookbook editor David Joachim has teamed up with leading food experts across the country to bring you the most comprehensive home-cooking reference book ever. Get down-to-earth answers to the cooking questions that you face every day. From A to Z, you'll discover more than 5,000 insider kitchen tips and over 900 recipes for incredibly easy, incredibly good food. Finally, you can enjoy yourself in the kitchen and still win raves.

"Do you want to cook like a pro? Then Brilliant Food Tips and Cooking Tricks is your answer. This exhaustively researched, masterfully organized book will help you be a faster, smarter, better cook. And isn't that what we all want?"--Pam Anderson, author of How to Cook without a Book and The Perfect Recipe

"Move over Joy of Cooking. Make way for Brilliant Food Tips and Cooking Tricks. There's enough culinary wisdom and savvy food tips packed into this book to keep you cooking and eating well for a lifetime."--Steven Raichlen, author of the award-winning Barbecue Bible, Healthy Latin Cooking, and How to Grill

"Here, finally, is a great reference book for novice and experienced cooks alike. The A-Z arrangement and accurate cross-referencing make it easy to find all the information you need--especially when another cookbook gives incomplete or unclear instructions. Brilliant Food Tips and Cooking Tricks is destined to become a classic."--Nick Malgieri, author of Chocolate and Cookies Unlimited

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Brilliant Food Tips and Cooking Tricks

Come meet your new best friend in the kitchen. Introducing the big book of home-cooking secrets, fabulous food tips, simple solutions, and recipes to rave about! Whether you cook a little or a lot, plain or fancy, healthy or hearty, for your family or just for fun, this is the one book that does it all--faster and easier than you ever dreamed!
Find out how to choose the juiciest oranges, perk up limp asparagus, chop an onion with no tears, grill a steak to juicy perfection, rescue any oversalted dish, and crack an egg with one hand. Or, if you're simply tired of the same old meals night after night, discover hundreds of easy recipes that put great-tasting food on your table fast.

With this book, you can cook anything with skill, confidence, and pleasure--from a moist, juicy Thanksgiving turkey to a healthy chocolate-banana cream pie to your family's favorite chili with a delicious new twist.

Brilliant Food Tips and Cooking Tricks is the book to keep by your side whenever you cook. It's your silent partner, your creative inspiration, and your cooking emergency hotline all rolled into one! This indispensable kitchen companion contains all the practical, down-to-earth cooking wisdom that you will ever need. Learn quick new tricks and clever trade secrets. Discover dozens of recipe rescues. Put a new spin on tried-and-true dishes. Most of all, learn how to cook faster, cook smarter, and have more fun in the kitchen.

You'll find the following special features and many more in this extraordinary book:

* Over 5,000 brilliant tips on buying, storing, and preparing food; boosting flavor; cooking healthfully; saving time; rescuing failed recipes; and much more
* More than 900 simple, great-tasting recipes for home cooks
* Over 200 helpful boxes such as "How Baking Works" and "Four Ways to Flavor Pork Tenderloin"
* 170 step-by-step illustrations that teach you timesaving techniques
* More than 150 fascinating food facts and household hints
* Over 25 useful charts and tables with emergency substitutions, metric conversions, a guide to pan sizes, and much more
* The combined experience of five top cooking experts
* Easy-to-use, find-it-fast format

David Joachim is an editor, author, and spokesperson for Rodale cookbooks such as Prevention's The Healthy Cook and Vegetarian and More! He makes regular appearances on national television and radio, including the Discovery Channel, Food Network, QVC, and National Public Radio. He edited Steven Raichlen's Healthy Latin Cooking, which won a James Beard Award and was a finalist for a Julia Child Award.

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How to Use This Book A good reference book is like a kaleidoscope of information. At every turn, it sparkles with new and interesting perspectives. And, hopefully, it provides some insight that is truly useful. My goal in these pages was to create such a book. Everything here is designed to help you develop a keener sense of food and cooking by revealing the little details that most cookbooks don't tell you. This book shows you how to buy, store, and prepare hundreds of common (and not-so- common) foods; how to fix food that goes kaflooey in the kitchen; how to cook smarter and faster; how to create and balance flavors; and how to cook more healthfully. Step-by-step illustrations demonstrate essential as well as lesser-known techniques such as the best way to crack an egg, how to seed a chile pepper without touching it, and two ways to carve a turkey. There are even tips on how to read a recipe, set up an efficient kitchen, and plan a party. And, of course, the book contains a broad selection of recipes--over 900 in all. The recipes are meant to address nearly every cooking occasion you may be faced with, from simple breakfasts and weeknight meals to more elaborate holiday meals and special occasions. Each recipe has been developed in a home kitchen and streamlined for home cooks. This book is organized from A to Z. Each entry (Apples, for instance) begins with a brief description followed by tips, recipes, illustrations, and other useful information. The tips within each entry are further organized under five categories: Basics, Prob- lem Solvers, Time Savers, Flavor Tips, and Healthy Hints. All entries are alphabetized by letter rather than by word. This means that if a space occurs between two words in an entry, it is alphabetized as if there were no space. For example, Cake Pans appear before Cakes. If you don't find what you're looking for, check the index. The information you're after may be in another entry. For instance, a tip on how much acid to add to a marinade is listed under Marinades rather than under Acidity. Likewise, the index is the best place to search for recipes because not every recipe will appear under its likely entry. Simple Red Pepper Sauce, for example, appears under Peppers, Sweet rather than under Sauces. Most of this book's recipes appear in a shorthand paragraph form, in which the ingredients and directions are mixed together, and the ingredients appear in boldface type for easy reference. Notice that a few dozen recipes do appear in a more traditional recipe format with an ingredient list followed by a set of cooking directions. These recipes have been given special treatment because they demonstrate the book's most practical tips. I've found that knowing your way around a kitchen comes mostly with practice. But good guidance helps. My hope is that these recipes and tips will make your life in the kitchen easier and more enjoyable; and that the little-known food facts will delight and surprise you along the way.

A Acidity Acidity in food imparts a sour (tart) taste on the tongue that is one of the four basic flavors. The most common forms are citrus juice, vinegar, wine, and tomatoes. Acidic ingredients (yogurt and buttermilk included) also affect the texture, color, and shelf life of foods. A bit of acid can make a pie crust more tender, stabilize whipped egg whites, and bring a shine to copper cookware. Basics To make acidulated water . For each quart (4 cups) of cold water, add 4 tablespoons lemon juice. Or add a different acidic ingredient, such as 2 teaspoons vinegar or 1/2 cup white wine. Problem Solver To prevent discoloration of low-acid foods . Toss the cut food with lemon juice or vinegar. This method will keep cut apples, potatoes, bananas, and other low-acid foods from turning brown. Or place the cut food in acidulated water until needed. Flavor Tips To enhance flavors . A bit of citrus juice or vinegar enhances the flavors of fruits, vegetables, poultry, and seafood by complementing natural sweetness. To decrease acidity . Add a sweet ingredient such as sugar, honey, or syrup. Start with a ratio of 1 part sweetener to 3 parts acidic ingredient (say, 1 teaspoon sugar to 1 tablespoon lemon juice). Increase the ratio as desired. Equal amounts give a pleasant sweet-and-sour flavor. Alcohol see also Beer; Flambé; Sherry; Wine An important ingredient in many recipes, alcohol adds flavor to sauces, soups, marinades, and even ice cream. When heated, some but not all of the alcohol evaporates. Basics To select . Match the type of alcohol to the food. For instance, flavor a raspberry sorbet with raspberry liqueur. There is no reason to use very expensive spirits for cooking, but keep in mind that if it's not worth drinking, it's not worth cooking with either. Avoid products labeled "cooking wine." These often contain salt, are of poor quality, and taste awful. To cook with alcohol . Be careful not to add too much. Many alcohol spirits have strong flavors that can easily overpower a dish. Begin by adding just a teaspoon or tablespoon, then taste the dish and add more if desired. To safely add alcohol to a hot pan . Remove the pan from the heat and slowly pour in the alcohol, swirling the pan to help keep the alcohol from heating too quickly. Return the pan to low heat and continue cooking as necessary. To give frozen desserts a smooth, creamy texture . Add 1 to 2 teaspoons alcohol to the base. Alcohol prevents ice crystals from forming, which helps keep frozen desserts creamy. But be careful. Too much alcohol will prevent your dessert from freezing at all, and you may end up with something best enjoyed with a straw rather than with a spoon. To boil off alcohol . Remove a hot skillet from the heat and add 1/2 to 1 cup liquor, wine, liqueur, or beer. Let the liquid in the pan boil until the vapors do not sting the inside of your nose when inhaled, about 1 minute for liquor, wine, or liqueur and 30 seconds for beer. Al Dente This Italian term translates to "to the tooth" and is used to describe the preferred texture for cooked pasta and some vegetables. Basics To check for al dente texture . Take a bite and look at the center of the food. Pasta should be completely cooked through with no white core but should still offer a bit of resistance. Vegetables should be tender yet crisp. Anchovies; Anchovy Paste These tiny, bold-flavored fish are most often available in their preserved form in tins. Anchovy paste is available in tubes. Basics To select . Go for whole anchovies packed in salt. They have the best flavor and are usually bigger and meatier than oil-packed anchovies. If you can't find salt-packed anchovies, glass jars of oil-packed fillets are the next best choice. Choose the jar with the meatiest fillets. Tins of oil- packed anchovies, which don't allow you to see what you're buying, are a poor third choice. Finally, buy anchovy paste only as a last resort for convenience. Anchovy paste is essentially the leftovers of the anchovy production plant packed into tubes. To store . After opening, transfer any unused anchovies to a container, cover with at least 1" of olive oil, seal the container, and refrigerate for up to 1 year. To fillet whole, salt-packed anchovies . Rinse off the salt with cold water. Working over a colander in the sink under slow running water, hold the fish belly-up and run a finger from the head down through the tail to separate the fillets and expose the backbone. Lift the backbone away from the fillet and discard. Soak the fillets in cold water for 20 to 30 minutes to reduce saltiness. Dry on paper towels before using or storing. Store as you would unfilleted anchovies. To cook . Keep the heat low and cook anchovies slowly, so that they dissolve gradually. Avoid high heat, which hardens anchovies and gives them a harsh, bitter flavor. Time...